LONDON (REUTERS) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was clinging to power on Wednesday (July 6), gravely wounded by the resignation of ministers who said he was not fit to govern and with a growing number of lawmakers calling for him to go.

Mr Johnson's finance and health secretaries quit on Tuesday, along with a number of junior ministers, saying they could no longer stay in government after the latest in a series of scandals blighted his administration.

With mounting calls for Mr Johnson to quit, he showed his determination to stay in office by appointing businessman and education minister Mr Nadhim Zahawi as his new finance minister and filling some of the other vacancies.

"I suspect we will have to drag him kicking and screaming from Downing Street," one Conservative lawmaker told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. "But if we have to do it that way then we will."

The level of hostility Mr Johnson faces within his party will be laid bare later on Wednesday when he appears in parliament for his weekly question session, and before the chairs of select committees for a scheduled two-hour grilling.  

Mr Johnson, a former journalist and London mayor who became the face of Britain’s departure from the European Union, won a landslide election victory in 2019 before taking a combative and often chaotic approach to governing.

Mr Johnson's leadership has been mired in scandals and missteps over the last few months, with the prime minister fined by police for breaking Covid-19 lockdown laws and a damning report published about the behaviour of officials at his Downing Street office who breached lockdown rules.

There have also been policy U-turns, an ill-fated defence of a lawmaker who broke lobbying rules, and criticisms that he has not done enough to tackle a cost-of-living crisis, with many Britons struggling to cope with rising fuel and food prices.

The Times of London newspaper said Mr Johnson’s "serial dishonesty" was "utterly corrosive" of effective government.  

"Every day that he remains deepens the sense of chaos," it said. "For the good of the country, he should go."

The latest bout of drama at the heart of British power comes as the economy deteriorates rapidly, with some economists warning that the country could tip into recession.

The latest scandal saw Mr Johnson apologising for appointing a lawmaker to a role involved in offering pastoral care and handling party discipline, even after being briefed that the politician had been the subject of complaints about sexual misconduct.

It prompted Mr Rishi Sunak to quit as Chancellor of the Exchequer - finance minister - and Mr Sajid Javid to resign as Health Secretary, while half a dozen others left their junior ministerial or envoy roles.

"It is clear to me that this situation will not change under your leadership - and you have therefore lost my confidence too," Mr Javid's resignation letter said.

Several of the ministers cited Mr Johnson’s lack of judgement, standards, and inability to tell the truth.

A snap YouGov poll found 69 per cent of Britons thought Mr Johnson should step down as prime minister but for the time being the remainder of his top ministerial team offered their backing.

"I fully support the prime minister," Scottish Secretary Alister Jack said. "I am sorry to see good colleagues resign, but we have a big job of work to do, and that's what we're getting on with."

A month ago Mr Johnson survived a confidence vote of Conservative lawmakers, and party rules mean he cannot face another such challenge for a year.

However, some lawmakers are seeking to change those rules, while he is also under investigation from a parliamentary committee over whether he lied to Parliament about Covid-19 lockdown breaches.

Were Mr Johnson to go, the process to replace him could take a couple of months.

Only two-and-a-half years ago, the ebullient Mr Johnson won a huge parliamentary majority on a promise to sort out Britain's exit from the European Union after years of bitter wrangling.

But since then his initial handling of the pandemic was widely criticised, and the government has lurched from one predicament to another.

Although Mr Johnson has won wider plaudits for his support of Ukraine, it has not materialised into a boost in opinion polls, which show the Conservatives trailing the opposition Labour Party and his own popularity ratings at all time lows.

His combative approach towards the Europe Union has also weighed on the pound, exacerbating inflation which is forecast to surpass 11 per cent.

"After all the sleaze, the scandals and the failure, it's clear that this government is now collapsing," Labour leader Keir Starmer said.